Israel Fears Rockier Road With Bush Than Reagan

June 12, 1989|By Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune.

JERUSALEM — After carefully dissecting the speeches and actions of top officials in the Bush administration, Israeli politicians are convinced they face a very different partner in Washington than during the Reagan years. And they are worried.

Israel`s hard-liners fear the worst. They predict an era of blunt statements and diplomatic maneuvering by the U.S. aimed at forcing Israel into a settlement with the Palestinians that could threaten the continued existence of the Jewish state.

Other Israeli officials downplay such fears, but still agree that the days of the Reagan administration`s almost total support for their country are over.

``It`s a different game, and we have to learn how to play it,`` said an official close to right-wing Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Under any circumstances, Israel would be anxious about political changes in Washington. Israel relies heavily on the $3 billion it gets in American aid annually, as well as on U.S. diplomatic support.

But the 18-month-old Palestinian uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip appears to have made Israeli officials even more concerned about the new administration in Washington.

As the uprising drags on, Israel`s leaders appear somewhat frazzled by the daily demands of coping with the protest, fending off criticism from politicians on the far Right and Left, and dealing with new U.S. diplomatic initiatives.

The Israelis also are troubled because they see less support for their cause in Congress and among American Jews and the news media. The failure of more American Jews to protest last December when the U.S. opened a dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization is a blow that still smarts for the Likud party and others on the Right.

A senior American official attending the latest rounds of talks between the U.S. and the PLO last week in Tunisia was quoted by the Associated Press as saying Washington was not deaf to Israel`s opposition to the talks. ``But it`s the only contact we have with the PLO and we are determined to keep it up, whatever the Israelis say and whatever the immediate chances of success may be,`` the official was quoted as saying.

Most Israelis agree that President Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker III are pragmatic politicians who do not share Ronald Reagan`s emotional support for Israel. But the Likud says Baker unwittingly created major political problems for Shamir when he challenged Israeli policy in a speech last month to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby.

Baker said Israel should halt its settlement of the areas occupied in the 1967 Mideast war, reopen schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and ``reach out to the Palestinians as neighbors who deserve political rights.``

Baker`s remarks bolstered a campaign by hard-line Likud members such as Ariel Sharon to kill Shamir`s peace plan, the premier`s associates say.

Shamir`s plan calls for the 1.7 million Palestinians in the occupied territories to elect representatives to negotiate with Israel on a transition period of self-rule. Further talks would determine the final status of the West Bank and Gaza, but Israel says an independent Palestinian state is out of the question.

On Sunday, a visiting Egyptian Cabinet minister said the PLO and most Arab states view the election plan as insincere. According to Israeli sources, Boutros Boutros Ghali, Egypt`s minister of state for foreign affairs, told Deputy Premier Shimon Peres, ``The feeling is widespread in the Arab world that the initiative is not serious and is aimed merely at gaining time.``

Israeli officials also accuse the Bush administration of ``sandbagging``

Foreign Minister Moshe Arens. Twice Arens returned home from the U.S. saying there were no differences between the two countries. And each time after he departed, U.S. officials raised questions about Israeli policies.

The problem may not be U.S. doubletalk, observers suggest, but rather Israelis` failure to listen to what the Americans are saying.

There is no doubt, however, that Shamir and his supporters closely follow what the U.S. is saying about the PLO, the issue on which Israel and the U.S. face the greatest chance of a showdown.

Shamir and his party refuse to negotiate with the PLO. They accuse the U.S. of undermining their election proposal by recognizing the PLO and by meeting with PLO leaders despite armed attacks on Israel by PLO factions.

``They are not listening to our protests about continued terrorism. They are giving all kinds of lame excuses,`` complained Yossi Ben-Aharon, director general of the Prime Minister`s Office.